The author built this limited-edition 1/24-scale
Red Baron Tom Daniel plastic car kit and the
diorama to display the triplane. He thinks it
makes the aircraft look like a 1/4-scale model!

Getting It to Fly

It took me almost
as long to get the
model to fly as it did
to build it. One of the
obstacles was finding
or making the right
propeller. I needed
the largest propeller
that I could swing
with the available
power, but as I went
up in size, the model
would torque roll into
the ground as soon
as I launched it. If I reduced the size,
it would not produce enough thrust
to fly. I ended up making roughly 10

propellers of various sizes and pitches
before I found one that worked right.

Red Baron Diorama

I completed the triplane in time
for the 2015 Horizon Indoor Electric
Festival in Columbus, Ohio, but I
wanted to build a small display for
the model. I remembered that I had
a 1/24-scale Red Baron Tom Daniel
limited-edition plastic car model kit
stored away that was perfect for this
project.

I built some of Tom Daniel’s cool
model car kits when I was a boy, and
building the Red Baron car brought
back some of those fond memories!

Tom has a website where he sells some
of his memorabilia. I sent him a photo
of my completed Red Baron car and
triplane and he was impressed.

If you would like to see the little
triplane fly, Matt Gunn shot a
wonderful video at the 2015 Horizon
flight. You can find it on You Tube under
the title “The 2015 Horizon Indoor—
RCGroups Video Wrap Up.” My flight
is close to the 4-minute mark in the
video.